This thread is similar to an original which became horribly messed up following the forum upgrade. I cannot edit and fix it so begin this one anew.

Looking for a steady gaming group maybe? Mine is looking for a few additional friendly gamers.

I’m the host of a small group of tabletop gamers who have been meeting regularly for about 5 years. We game on weekends, typically 4-6 players and all day. I provide the venue which is a house with lots of room and serve great food & drink. We are much better at learning new games than anything else, so although we are experienced we are not particular good at anything!

Games which have recently been a hit with us include Millennium Blades, New Angeles, Tiny Epic Western and Cthulhu Wars. Older favourites include Caverna, Kemet, 7 Wonders and Dead of Winter. There are many more.

Over time our steady group has lost a few regulars due to life stuff so to ensure we can keep meeting regularly a few extra folks would be really welcome, and welcomed

Welcome to Dead Man’s Doubloons, an action-packed board game in which players take on the role of a legendary pirate ship captain hell-bent on winning the race to endless riches of buried treasure. Fragments of treasure maps, gold doubloons,...

Each player takes the role of a pirate ship captain with the simple goal of amassing the most booty. This is a programming game with each player (2-6) simultaneously planning their actions. A neat twist relative to other programming games is that each card that can be played offers multiple options rather than just one thing which provides some flexibility once the actions are to be taken.

Super quick and simple to learn and the indicated play time of about 45 is actually spot on! There is very little downtime. Even comparing to other programming games like Lords of Xidit & Robo-Rally there is less downtime. Play is quick, continuous, a little chaotic & occasionally hilarious. The closest comparator I can think of is Colt Express, which is a huge compliment, but this game does have more depth. Also pirates!

There are effectively two things going on. One is a ship maneuvering, battling & boarding and the other is an exploration of the treasure island by player captains. They are impactful upon each other and both dimensions offer ways to pick up VPs.

If a player ship is reduced to zero health it becomes a ‘Ghost Ship’ with some different powers. In our first game I got turned into a Ghost Ship by our second turn but also managed to redeem back to the living world via cashing in 5 doubloons. Less impressive, my Captain literally didn’t leave the Island beach during the game. All Captains start on the beach and are supposed to race towards the big buried treasure at the volcanic centre of the island. Hammock, coconuts, good fish, why climb towards a volcano?

An end-game begins once the buried treasure is recovered. It is super fast and basically gives a round or two of opportunity for the Captains to pummel each other at sea and potentially steal doubloons or gain notoriety for extra VPs.

The basic game already offers more depth & variation than Colt Express and there are optional / advanced rules to play with for more variety. Could definitely come to this one.

Sharing from several recent game days. Open invite remains open too, if you would like to join us, we game on weekends near Canada Water. Newcomers welcome, PM me!

Hardback - rarely has a game appealed to me less based on what I was told and read about it on BGG. Oh, like Scrabble, but with some extra complexity? Bone dry theme? Some light touch deck building elements. I didn’t expect to hate it, but I did expect to be thoroughly nonplussed.

In reality? Loved it. It has this magical feature that every precious morsel of “downtime” between turns is actually your desperately needed thinking thinking time. The sense of joy when spelling out a word is tremendous. The deck build aspect is light but adds welcome depth and choices. Pushing your luck with ink and eraser is suitably risky and reward-y.

The ability to solicit word suggestions without penalty to yourself other than a reward to anyone whose suggestion you take up felt like a genius piece of design. I invited suggestions several times and it kept the game moving quickly. Sure, I did not win, but I also did not care! Fun to play, fun to compete, winning entirely optional.

Hardback is a deck-building word game, a prequel to Paperback. As an aspiring 19th-century novelist, you work to pen your next masterpiece, earning prestige along the way. Specialize your deck in certain genres to exploit card combinations, and...

Not Alone Oh what a tremendous little gem. Very quick to set up and learn to play and tear down. Our group rarely play a game twice within the space of months, never mind a single session. That we played this twice in a row makes it something like one in a hundred special.

Amazing. It is a game where for the human players not talking at all might be their most effective tactic but both plays, with different players as the Entity, had us babbling with excitement, dismay and elation all the way to the end.

In both games our Entity successfully hunted the humans which may be the more likely outcome. It did not seem to matter to the enjoyment and both games delivered palpable tension and just enough hope until the dear end.

It is the 25th century. You are a member of an intergalactic expedition shipwrecked on a mysterious planet named Artemia. While waiting for the rescue ship, you begin to explore the planet but an alien entity picks up your scent and begins to hunt...

Paper Tales Take the deck drafting and fight your neighbours elements of 7 Wonders and make a lighter, quicker, combat focused game out it and you have Paper Tales. Another extremely quick setup, learn to play, play and tear down game.

I actually own this one but goofed badly. I went to prepare drinks whilst the rules were being recapped thinking sure, yeah, I know how to play. I then proceeded to be utterly befuddled by how the other gamers performed so much better than I did.

Even when I got out a Dragon, a very strong card, it was vanquished. Game of Thrones tells me that should not be true. Taking note, read the damn play turn card that is literally right in front of you! I played “hard mode” by mistake by failing to ever take the default 2 gold per turn income.